Friends, please listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah, spoken some seven hundred years before the coming of Christ:

“Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed? For He grew up like a tender plant before Him, And like a root out of dry ground. He has no attracting form nor majesty that we should look upon Him, Nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised; and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our sicknesses, And carried our sorrows; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God and afflicted. But He was wounded because of our transgressions; He was crushed because of our iniquities; The chastening for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we have been healed. more…